|
| At Home Plate wants you |
|---|
|
Do you dream of becoming a sportswriter? We always have room for writers, editors, fact checkers, graphic designers, photographers, and web gurus to help us make the site even better.
Come chase your dreams with us. For more information: Click here
Space
Space Space |
| All links courtesy of MLBTradeRumors.com. |
| MLB Scores & Standings |
|---|
| At Home Plate RSS Feeds |
|---|
| At Home Pate Spotlight | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
| Advertisement |
|---|
|
| Advertisement |
|---|
|
Ad Space for Sale
|
| AHP Writers | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|
| Colorado Rockies 2008 Preview |
| Written by Jonathan Leshanski | ||||||
| Friday, 07 March 2008 | ||||||
|
2007 Record: 90-73 Second in the NL West – 1.0 games back Home: Coors Field A mile higher than they used to be: 2B – Marcus Giles* - Free Agency OF – Scott Podsednik* - Free Agency RP – Jose Capelan – Trade from Tigers RP – Luis Vizcaino – Free Agency SP – Victor Zambrano* - Free Agency SP – Josh Towers – Free Agency SP – Kip Wells – Free Agency Feeling Rather Low: 2B – Kaz Matsui – Free Agent to Astros 3B – Jamie Carroll – Traded to Indians RP – Jeremy Affeldt – Free Agent to Reds RP – LaTroy Hawkins – Free Agent to Yankees RHP – Steven Register – Taken in Rule V draft by Mets RP – Tom Martin* – Free Agent to Dodgers RP – Jorge Julio* - Free Agent to Indians RP – Rodrigo Lopez – Free Agent RP – Ramon Ortiz – Free Agent SP – Denny Bautista – Traded to Tigers SP – Josh Fogg – Free Agency to Reds SP – Elmer Dessens* - Free Agency to Pirates The Skinny: After last year’s tremendous run to the World Series no one is willing to write off the Rockies before the season begins. Not only does that mean that the Rockies won’t be surprising anyone, but that many teams, and many pundits will expect the Rockies to achieve greatness once again. While that’s not out of the realm of possibility, you need to remember the Rockies needed one of the greatest September runs of all time to make it to the postseason and when they had to rest they cooled off considerably – and they’ve been off now for six months or so. Strengths: This team is a monster offensively and only looks to be better in 2008. The loss of Kaz Matsui at the top of the lineup could cut a little into their production but Troy Tullowitzki or Todd Helton is likely to take over in that slot keeping the top two thirds of the batting order one of the most potent in the NL. This could however be the last go around for 3B Garrett Atkins, who’ll be a free agent at the end of the season and could even finish elsewhere if the Rox don’t look like contenders by midseason. Weaknesses and Questions: The Rockies struck paydirt last season when their pitching staff found a modicum of success and finished middle of the pack (8th of 16) in the NL last season. That was still the worst in their entire division and no pitcher aside from Jeff Francis could claim 11 wins. That might change this year if young fireballer Ubaldo Jimenez can prove that his success last year was not a fluke. It’s certainly easy to want to believe in him but there is a difference between pitching less than 50 innings at Coors and pitching more than 100 – especially when your best pitch is a slider and the air in Colorado can strip it of all movement. After Francis and Jimenez everyone else is a either a journeyman or a work in progress although the Rockies have great hope for Franklin Morales who they think could win the fifth starter job out of spring training. The other spots will be fought over by Victor Zambrano, Josh Towers, Jason Hirsh, Aaron Cook, Mark Redman and Kip Wells. Last year’s outstanding bullpen was ripped apart by free agency and reassembled with question marks all over the place. New additions Jose Capellan and Luis Vizcaino have both has some outstanding seasons, but neither looked all that great last year. That takes away a lot of the rock (or should be say Rox) solid late inning work that the team relied on - and that could be a significant problem. The question of just who will play second base is another question. The Rox would like to give the job to either Jayson Nix or Ian Stewart but clearly aren’t sold on either of them as they did sign Marcus Giles to a minor league deal in case they youngsters don’t impress this spring. If Giles gets the job he’ll hit 7th in front of Yorvit Torrealba but either rookie would probably bat 8th. Potential Lineup Willie Tavaras (CF) Todd Helton (1B) Matt Holliday (LF) Brad Hawpe (RF) Troy Tullowitzki (SS) Garret Atkins (3B) Yorvit Torrealba (C) Jayson Nix/ Ian Stewart (2B) Potential Rotation Jeff Francis Ubaldo Jimenez Aaron Cook Josh Towers Franklin Morales Keys to success: The Rockies will need to at the very least match last season’s pitching performance and ideally improve on it. That’s a lot to ask, particularly from the bullpen which was really the glue which held the pitching staff together. If they can do that they’ll have a legit shot at a playoff berth. Prediction: The Rockies will not win the division, and could fall back to a more familiar place towards the bottom of the standings. They have not gotten better by additions this off season and in fact have some bigger holes than they had last year while the Dodgers have taken strides forward as have the offensively challenged Diamondbacks. But will they make the playoffs? In this wild, wild western division anything is possible but only if the Rockies can pitch.
Powered by !JoomlaComment 3.26
3.26 Copyright (C) 2008 Compojoom.com / Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."You can contact Jonathan Leshanski via the writer's Profile or the AHP Staff via the contact form. 
Hype up this post at BallHype! |
||||||
| Search The Site |
|---|
|
|